18 September 2012

Parking on your street

Lewisham are consulting about the future of parking in the Borough.

The contract with NCP is up for renewal next year and so they are seeking people's views on how parking should be managed throughout the Borough. This applies to car parks, on street parking and controlled parking zones.

It is really important to feed your views in to the council as this could affect parking policy for the next 10 years or more.

One option under consideration is for the whole Borough to become a controlled parking zone. This would simplify things for Lewisham, may enable the introduction of noon - 2 pm parking restrictions as well as prevent distant commuters from parking on the road by the stations. However, it would probably not solve the parking problem near stations as many local residents drive to the station so that they can get to child care or similar commitments on their return.

The Campaign for Better Transport's (CBT) recent annual study of car dependency in British cities found that London is the least car-dependent city in the UK. Fewer and fewer people feel the need to own a car, and with most of the new homes being built next to transport hubs (another CBT recommendation) per capita car ownership is likely to experience another big drop, reinforcing the downwards long-term trend for car ownership per capita in inner London. The question is whether this trend wlll beat the predicted population growth and inevitably increase pressure on parking space on Lewisham's roads.

The parking survey can be completed online, or hard copies can be picked up at libraries, housing offices, the parking shop and access point.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE COUNCIL NO LATER THAN 5PM ON FRIDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2012.